How to Help Your Child Improve English Comprehension in Primary School

Your child can tell you what happened in a story, but their written comprehension answer is vague. Or they read the passage aloud smoothly, then struggle to explain why a character acted a certain way.

Those are two different problems. Before assigning another practice paper or looking for primary English tuition, try a short exercise with one paragraph and one question. Listen to your child’s answer before asking them to write it. The difference between what they say and what they write can help you decide what to practise next.

Try One Question Three Ways

Read this short passage together:

Mei had practised her speech all week. When her teacher called her name, she gripped the edges of her cue cards and took a deep breath before walking to the front of the classroom.

Ask: “How was Mei likely feeling just before her speech? What detail tells you that?”

1. Ask for an answer aloud. If your child is unsure what happened, reread the passage together and ask them to retell it. Check whether an unfamiliar word, such as “gripped,” is getting in the way.

   
   

2. Ask them to point to a clue. If they say Mei was nervous, ask which action suggests that. If they say she was excited, ask what in the passage supports that interpretation. The purpose is to connect the answer to the text.

   
   

3. Ask them to write the answer. If they can explain it aloud but only write “She was nervous,” ask them to reread the question. It asks for both a feeling and a detail. One possible answer is: “Mei was probably nervous because she gripped her cue cards and took a deep breath before walking to the front.”

This question asks your child to make an inference: work out something the writer implies without stating directly. The English Language Institute of Singapore lists a local Primary 6 classroom inquiry into teaching this skill through pictures, short texts and longer comprehension passages. [1]

Match the Practice to Where Your Child Gets Stuck

If your child can read the words but struggles to retell the passage, start with a shorter section. Ask who did what, and in what order. Clear up any word that changes the meaning of the scene before tackling an inference question.

If your child understands the story but guesses at motives or feelings, ask, “Which action or phrase makes you think that?” A plausible answer still needs support. Looking for a clue also gives your child a way to reconsider their first guess independently.

If your child explains the answer aloud but leaves details out in writing, practise checking what the question asks for. For a question with two parts, have them point to where they answered each part. After working through one example together, offer a fresh question and see whether they can do the check without a reminder.

When Might Primary English Tuition Help?

Look for a pattern across several pieces of schoolwork. If the same difficulty keeps coming up, share one or two examples with your child’s teacher or a tutor. Include what your child could explain aloud and what they actually wrote. That gives the teacher more to work with than a score alone.

If you’re considering primary English tuition, ask: “How would you tell whether my child needs help understanding the passage or expressing an answer?” Then ask what your child should be able to do independently after a few lessons. A useful goal might be finding a relevant clue and explaining how it supports an answer on a passage they haven’t seen before.

If you’d like help working out where your child is getting stuck, bring a recent passage, the question and their original answer to Educare Tutoring. Those three pieces give us a starting point for discussing what kind of English support would be useful.

Reference

[1] English Language Institute of Singapore — ELIS Research Fund Reports.